ELECTION MUSINGS…
3-6-12
Be sure and vote on TUESDAY, MARCH 13. Polls are open from 7 A.M. until 7 P.M. If you wish to vote in the local election for Probate Judge and Circuit Judge, YOU MUST VOTE IN THE DEMOCRAT PRIMARY on Tuesday. Because these are primaries for the parties to select their candidates for the November General Election, you can NOT vote for some Democrats and some Republicans on March 13.
Locally, in the Probate Judge’s race incumbent Kim Ballard is facing perennial candidate Tremane Gorden. In the contest for Circuit Judge, Judge Tommy Jones is opposed by Collins Pettaway. Because the Republicans did not field candidates for these offices, the winners of the Democrat races on Tuesday will be elected.
There are a number of reasons why we do not favor the election of Collins Pettaway as a Judge in this Circuit. Foremost among these is his part ownership of HATE RADIO 105.3. More than one person has told us that when people complained to the other owners of HATE RADIO about the hate, divisiveness, and animosity spewed on the airways by the evil Johnnie Leashore they were told that it was Pettaway’s 30% ownership of the station which was keeping little man Leashore on the air. We urge people to continue to complain to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington about the hate filled programs on 105.3 such as TrueSelma and Fortier’s Public Conversation.
The Selma School Board Elections will be at the same time in August as the Mayor and Council elections. We thought that Board member Holland Powell had an absolutely brilliant letter to the editor in the March 3 edition of the Selma Times-Journal. In a well reasoned manner, Powell showed how former Superintendent Jefferson had unilaterally entered into a contract with STI NOT ONCE BUT TWICE and has left the School System with a bill of over $55,000 by his actions. In neither instance had the School Board approved these contracts. Jefferson clearly violated the law in these actions. We certainly hope that Powell, Frank Chestnut and Mrs. Brenda Obamanu will seek re-election to the School Board. Perhaps Mr. Chestnut will consider running for President of the Board. We have previously said that we think current Board Chairman Henry Hicks is the most UNQUALIFIED person to be chairman of any board that we have ever known. His record as chairman speaks for itself. Both he and the Nigerian born Ufomodo need to be replaced in August.
Kudos to our Councilman Gregg Bjelke for getting the old Y problem on Broad Street solved. Both Council members Keith and Atchison also deserve praise for their efforts toward the goal of getting the façade of the building stabilized. Now that the Historic Society has purchased the building, we expect to see work started soon to stabilize the building. This will be another improvement to the downtown area.
The City Election for Mayor, Council President and all members of the City Council will be held Tuesday, AUGUST 28. Because the election for Mayor and Council President are city wide, we are sure these elections will be held on time; however, the election of City Council members on that date is dependent on the Council adopting a redistricting plan and then, thanks to the Voting Rights Acts of 1965, getting that plan approved by the Justice Department. Those familiar with Selma’s history will remember that once before when there was no approved plan in place that the council election was postponed and the council members continued to serve additional months.
We now have a good idea-although this is not set in stone-about what council members are planning to do. We believe that Councilman Corey Bowie will run for President of the City Council. We certainly support him in that effort. We also think Council members Susan Keith, Gregg Bjelke, Angela Benjamin and B. L. Tucker will seek re-election. They have worked well together and with Mayor Evans. We hope they will be re-elected. Crenshaw and Randolph always run. We have no reason to think that they won’t be on the ballot in August. If the current redistricting plan is approved, it appears that Randolph will have opposition from the major hate monger in town, Johnnie Leashore.
The Mayor’s race between current Mayor George Evans and former mayor James Perkins, Jr. appears set. We do not anticipate any other serious contenders entering this contest. There are a number of reason we believe Mayor George Evans should be given another term by the voters--not the least of which is that he is better able to bring people together. The 8 years that Perkins was in office were filled with contention, division and strife between the city and county, the city and residents of Valley Grande, the mayor and the city council, and the mayor and segments of the community. As long as Perkins’ major supporters are dividers and haters such as TrueSelma, HATE RADIO 105.3, Leashore, Crenshaw, and the like, there is no evidence that he has changed his approach to people or to governing. We will say to Mr. Perkins the same thing that we said to Dr. Jefferson that they both would be better served by distancing themselves from people like PACO, TrueSelma, 105.3 and other professional malcontents, be their own front men and speak for themselves.
An interesting thing to watch between now and the opening of qualifying for City Council on July 1 will be what current Council President Dr. Williamson and Ward 1 Councilman Tommy Atchison do. Dr. Williamson has said that he would not seek election as Council President. Despite lies and half-truths in the community that Benjamin, Bowie and Tucker had voted for him to be Council President, the truth is that he did not seek the office and became President by law after the unfortunate death of Council President Dr. Geraldine Allen. We understand that if Ward 1 Councilman Atchison does seek re-election that Dr. Williamson will not run in Ward 1. That makes sense to us because Williamson has consistently supported and praised Mr. Atchison for his work on the Council. If Mr. Atchison does not run, we hope that Dr. Williamson will run for Councilman in Ward 1.
There are a number of reason we would like to see Dr. Williamson on the next city council. First, if Mayor Evans wins re-election, no one has been a better friend and supporter of the Mayor than Williamson. On the other hand, if Mr. Perkins becomes Mayor again, we believe that Dr. Williamson would be needed on the Council more than ever.
Without getting into race issues, we were able to copy these population figures for each Ward from the redistricting map posted at the public forum on redistricting:
WARD WHITE BLACK OTHER
1 1690 950 69
2 652 1974 75
3 714 1820 59
4 170 1408 47
5 134 2423 20
6 101 2349 33
7 219 2342 27
8 61 2406 14
These are population figures NOT the total number of voters in the Ward. If you looked at the numbers from a racial standpoint, it would appear that the next Council may have only one white member: however, we know that no one has worked harder with and for both blacks and whites in their wards than Susan Keith and Gregg Bjelke. We know they both have broad support among all people of good will and could be re-elected. We are even told that both Councilman Atchison and President Williamson have been very responsive to all people in Ward 1. When you study the results of their elections, it is evident that they both received votes from blacks as well as from whites in the Ward. AND THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!!!
We want to close on an enlightening note and another word about the cancer in the city which we affectionately call HATE RADIO 105.3. Last week, Franklin Fortier, whom we believe to be a dedicated Marxist anarchist and who is ever trying to ferment strife in the streets of Selma, had an Indian from Arizona on Public Conversation. We believe the man went by the name Tupac and was in town to demonstrate for “rights”. In his discourse, which was a blend of paganism and earth worship, Tupac said that we are all “children of Mother Earth”. Unfortunately, there is much error associated with traditional Indian belief, especially the worship of earth, sun the creation rather than the Creator. While we can understand how Tupac might be an earth worshipper and believe that we all are children of “Mother Earth” we are extremely disappointed that Fortier was assenting to all of this environmental extremism, false teaching and denial of God the Creator. For Christians, there is no “mother earth” but there is a God the Father. We would much rather be His children, than children of “mother earth”. It grieves us that some much theological garbage is being heaped upon people in the Black Belt by Fortier and Hate Radio.
We believe that the majority of both blacks and whites are too discerning to be led astray from the truth of the Word by false teachers and false teaching.
